d.

"I am thinking," the jarl said, "that we must have made some error. Do
you not see that she rides, just as we were sailing, with her head to
the north-east? That shows that the current is against us."

"Assuredly it does," Edmund said; "but the current is a very slack one,
for the ropes are not tight."

"But that agrees not," Siegbert said, "with what I have been told. In
the first place, this channel points to the northeast, whereas, as I
have heard, the straits into the Mediterranean run due east. In the
next place, those who have been through have told me that there are no
tides as in the northern seas, but that the current runs ever like a
river to the east."

"If that be so," Edmund said, "we must have mistaken our way, for here
what current there is runs to the west. To-morrow morning, instead of
proceeding farther, we will cross to the opposite side, and will follow
that down until we strike upon the right channel."

In the morning sail was again made, and crossing what was really the
Bay of Cadiz they sailed on till they arrived at the mouth of the
straits. There was no doubt now that they were right. The width of the
channel, its direction, and the steady current through it, all
corresponded with what Siegbert had heard, and proceeding a mile along
it they cast anchor.

They soon opened communications with the natives, who, although
speaking a tongue unknown to them, soon comprehended by their gestures
and the holding up of articles of barter that their intentions were
friendly. Trade was established, and there was now nothing to do but to
await the coming of the galleys.

"I would," Edmund said, as, when evening was closing, he looked across
the straits at the low hills on the opposite side, "that this passage
was narrower. Sweyn will, doubtless, have men on board his ship who
have sailed in these seas before, and will not need to grope his way
along as we have done. If he enters the straits at night we shall see
nothing of him, and the current runs so fast that he would sweep
speedily by. It is possible, indeed, that he has already passed. If he
continued to row down the shores of France all the time we were lying
wind-bound he would have had so long a start when the east wind began
to blow, that, although the galleys carry but little sail, they might
well have been here some days before us. Sweyn would be anxious to join
Hasting as soon as he could. The men would be thirsting for booty, and
woul